the median means that there's an equal number of households that are worth more than that and an equal number of house holds that are worth less than that. the medium net worth for an american household, the median net worth for a member of the house, is that number plus $1 million. almost exactly. those are the numbers if you round to the nearest thousand, these are the act numbers. and the bottom number there, that's where the center for responsive politics, that's the median net worth for this freshman slash of members of congress. it's weird, right? it's almost uncanny, there's almost exactly a $1 million incremement in net worth between the wealth of americans and the wealth of american representatives in congress.

congress is really rich compared to the rest of the country. it has been that way for a long time. and the disparity has been getting worse for a long time. between 1984 and 2009, the wealth of an average american family actually declined slightly. but the median net worth of a member of congress, more than doubled over that time. and congress not only keeps getting richer over time, they're now getting richer faster. the median net worth of incoming members of congress, that -- is even richer than congress already was when they got there. they made congress richer by getting there. and you know what? good for them, there's nothing wrong with people having lots of money, right? in terms of us making value judgments about what that says be whether people are good representatives, that's just a fact of congress.

it's an underappreciated fact about our democracy, that we essentially choose from among our millionaires who will be our representatives in washington. that's essentially the pool that bechoose from. and for some of the truly ethically rich members of congress, once you know how ethically rich they are, it's hard to think about whether or not that plays into the decisions they make in congress. take the nomination of jeh johnson, president obama has nominated him, he's going to have his confirmation in the senate tomorrow. jeh johnson was a federal prosecutor, for the past four years, he was the general council of the pentagon, of the whole defense department. well today, republican congressman from texas went on a tv show called fox and friends and deannounces jeh johnson's nomination out of that

confirmation hearing, he called him a name. he called him a political hack. >> he is some great people out there that are apolitical, for example like our next guest, ray kelly, he didn't go there and vote for jeh jocks a lawyer. >> i'm sorry, you called him what? >> a lawyer. >> this guy is the president's lawyer, and i don't want to put a political hack in that position. >> actually he's the defense department general council. he didn't call him a political hack. that's michael mccall, if you are the general council to the pentagon, that's the same thing as you being the president's lawyer, you're a political hack, who's obviously unqualified for a national security job. and maybe it does not matter in this case, maybe it does not affect congressman mccall's perspective that he appears to

be the richer person in all of congress. once you know that about him, though, it's hard not to keep that in mind when you see him in action, when you see him calling the guy a hack, saying essentially that he hasn't earned what he's got. michael mccall is the richest member of congress because he married a person who is going to inherit the clear channel fortune. his wife's father founded clear channel, michael mccall, married his wife and because of that and their shared assets, he is worth an estimated half bill i don't think dollars. more than anybody else in congress. does that affect his views about who has earned their way and who hasn't earned their way? and this guy like fred upton, he just had delivered to his office michigan i, 91 bags of apples grown by a local farmer. the local farmer pleading with fred upton, to please support immigration reform because he sees it as key to his farm.

if you're making a prediction about that, it may help you toe no about fred upton that he is the inheriter of the whirlpool portion. his grandfather founded whirlpool, you know like washer dries and stuff. that's kind of the biographical for for lots and lots of members of congress. members of congress you like, and members of congress you don't like. jim sensening brenner turned up a real story about whether there's any hope in save -- jim sensenbrenner may be the best hope that there is for any republican leadership on reinstating the bones of the voting rilings act, after the supreme court tore it down this summer. also, jim sensenbrenner's great grandfather invented kotex. behind all these members of

congress, behind more of them that you would think, that's kind of the story of congress, democratic senate and house, members of congress you like, ones you don't like, they're all heirs to some fortune or married to some heir to some fortune. while the average american is not getting richer, the average member of congress really is getting richer, and that's happening faster and faster all the time right now. and whether or not it is related, right now the average american's view of the average member of congress is the worst it has ever been in the history of asking people that question. the gallup organization for those released with polling data on how congress is doing in terms or handling it's job, the

number of americans who say yeah, they like the way congress is doing its job right now is down to 2 -- is that a single -- 9%, the lowest number ever recorded in gallup for decades of asking this question of the american people. they got really, really bad during the government shutdown last month, not of course have they not recovered since then, they in fact have continued to drop, it has never, ever, ever been in bad. at the same time, though, at the same time that gallup released that data, they also just released data that might help our ritchie rich congress out of american people hating them so much. there's one thing that congress could do, that -- it would make democrats happy, turns out it would make independents happy, turns out it would make republicans happy. it's just about the most popular thing that congress could

conceivably do and it's totally and statisically within reach kpor them to do it right now. nothing gets support like this. among democrats 91 post-support. among republicans it's 58%, among independents 76%,over all more than three-quarters of americans are in favor of raising the minimum wage, raising the minimum wage is more popular than expertise, among democrats and independents and republicans, when you ask regular americans if they like this idea, it is wildly popular. and actually popularity is going up. when new jersey voters went to the polls last week, they re-elected their governor chris christie by a 22 point margin, but they also overturned the gofz nor's vito of a prize in the state wage. new jersey's going to go from a $7.25 federal minimum wage to a dollar more than that, plus it's going to be scheduled to go up with legislation.

no thanks to chris christie, the people of new jersey decided that on their own. so gallup numbers to raise the minimum wage, that raises the minimum wage to $9 an hour, which is what president obama proposeded in the state of the union back in february. they certainly plan a vote on it by the end of the year, they may even be able to get it done by the end of this month. congress has not been able to raise the minimum wage since 2007. but the fact that they did it then, and they did it all the other times when they raised it when it was first established in 1928 at 38 sents and hour. it gives us tons of empirical evidence about what happens when we race the minimum wage, it turns out, when you raise the minimum wage, people who are working for minimum wage get paid more money, that's pretty much it. that's basically the impact of

raising the minimum wage. earlier this year, there was a comprehensive metal analysis, a study of studies on the minimum wage t impact of raising the minimum wage, and it's a graph, what all those other studies have found to be the impact of the minimum wage when we had raised it in all sorts of justifications across the country. this is the graph they came up with, if you look at all of the studies of the impact of raising the minimum wage, this is where they come out. want to know where that spike is, just look that digit right before. zero, this is the pile of studies, this is the overall emta impact of what studies say is the impact of minimum wage. this is the employment prospects when you raise the minimum wage. the university of chicago put out another big -- racing the minute muj wage on balance was a

good thing to do for people at the bottom end of the economic spectrum, and economists say yes, this would be a good idea. this would work, this is a good idea. this is nogs like trying to invent a time traveling teleportation to put people on jupiter or something. it's been done incrementally over and over and over again. federally and across the country starting in the great depression. we have done it to an effect that it has been seriously observable, studied and known. we know what happens when you raise the minimum wage, people at the bottom of the economic spectrum. it is a wildly popular policy. even republican voters like the idea of doing that. democrats in congress like the idea of doing this, the president wants to do this. but republicans in congress at least so far are standing against it. even just in the senate, senators like rand paul and marco rubio and lamar alexander,

all within the last few months, not just that the minimum wage should bchbt raised, but maybe the minimum wajs should not exist at all. maybe the minimum wage should be zero. republican voters not only want the minimum wage to exist, they want to raise it. just like all the other voters want to raise it. it is an overwhelming thing that democrats support and republican politicians don't, despite their own voters. and that is your definition of political opportunity. if your side supports something that is wildly popular, and the other side is against it, that is a political opportunity. if you support something that is so popular that even the voter from the other parties are with you on it and they're against their own politicians on it. that is a political opportunity. on paper, this is a simple things, but it is also the greater wedge issue that has ever been invoented in the history of politics. joining us now is noam shriver, he's the author of the cover

story in the lailtest issue, called "hillary's nightmare." mr. shriver, thanks very much being here. you have -- way for looking at economic pop limit and issues about class and money, whether or not that is the future of the democratic party's politics. what's your conclusion? >> no question, any way you slice the data, it's very hard to not see this trend toward pop him in the party. you mentioned a gallup survey, they have done a number of surveys tracking this over the years. before the crisis, democrats suspicions of the size and influence of corpses, about half

of democrats were kind of suspicious, now it's 80%. if you look at their views on banks and what they think about the banking sectors t number of americans that think very negatively about big banks 80 -- the support for government regulation of business has increased by roughly 17 toinlts, i mean you go down the list and it's clear that the orientation is increasingly popular. >> you look at elizabeth warren as maybe the standard bearer or a symbol of this in democratic politics, obviously she's a brand-new senator and nobody really knows where she's going in the party. it's not like elizabeth warren and bernie sanders are -- it's shar rod brown, it's jeff merkley. it's a lot of snarts and a lot

of sort of, i think, i guess it would consider them to be democratic a-listers who line up more on that side than the traditional prowall street track path. who championed the other side of it. did hillary clinton and if so who else? >> it remains to be seen. i mean hillary has obviously has a strong record fighting for kind of, you know, populist economic issues and universal health care in the '92 campaign is a very prosperous position. but there's no question that the clintons have been close to a number of wall street alumni over the years, the sort of intellectual descentants continue to be close to clinton to this day. then you have people you would expect, the people who in their own state, the financial sector is very strong, whether it's

delaware and the senator is -- you know, south dakota where a lot of banks are located. you know, so it ends up being sort of the old story, the politics is local. but i think that's where we see it. it's interesting, this piece about elizabeth, when i speak with chris murphy it was also elected in 2012 with elizabeth warren. i said how has this changed the democratic caucus in the last several we'res? he told me he thought in 2008 before the crisis, the caucus was split evenly between wall street skeptics and all street sympathizers, now he thinks it's 2/3, 1/3. >> with support from the white house, pushing on this right now, it's sort of going to be the last thing that they push on between now and thanksgiving, maybe, they're going to do this right away, is this sort of a test for both the democratic side of the aisle, but also to see whether or not this could work as a wedge on the

republicans? >> no, i think no question, i mean you're absolutely right, the polling suggests that rank and file republicans are exactly where most democrats are. and i really is a couple of holdouts, one of which is the restaurant industry, which is very powerful on the republican side in congress, i think something like 50%, 60% of minimum wage workers work in the restaurant industry. it's understandable why they're so agitated about this. that is not a -- even close to a majority opinion in the republican party, much less the entire country. so i think you're right, it's absolutely a main stream issue and these other questions are very much main stream as well. if you look at regulation of wall street. linda lake does reporting for regulation of the financial sector. that's gone from something like 70% immediately after the crisis, to like 80% now. they're not by any means restricted to democratic voters. >> noam shriver, thanks for being here.

this issue about economic pop him is one of the things that the belt way will always p oo-poo the issue. every time americans go there, they tend to win, whether it's crusading on something like regulating water, and thrown ousted an incumbent senator by eight points. when democrats work this stuff, it generally wins with them and the only thing you can tell is how loud the beltway blocks is going to fail every time. the secret is out. hydration is in. [ female announcer ] only aveeno daily moisturizing lotion has an active naturals oat formula that creates a moisture reserve so skin can replenish itself. aveeno® naturally beautiful results.

married to morty kaufman. [ lee ] now that i'm getting older some things are harder to do. this is not a safe thing to do. be careful babe. there should be some way to make it easier [ doorbell rings ] let's open it up and see what's cookin'. oh i like that. look at this it's got a handle on it. i don't have to climb up. this yellow part up here really catches a lot of the dust. did you notice how clean it looks? morty are you listening? morty? [ morty ] i'm listening! i want you to know for those nights when it's more than a bad dream, be ready. for the times you need to double-check the temperature on the thermometer, be ready. for high fever, nothing works faster or lasts longer. be ready with children's motrin.

it was the eastern in the eastern u.s. and it was early afternoon in hawaii when this happens. >> 19 ayes. >> madam clerk. >> that was hawaii's same-sex marriage bill willing passed, 19 votes to 4 by the hawaii state senate. that bill will now go to the democratic governor of hawaii and he will sign it tomorrow and then it will be legal in hawaii for same-sex couples to marry each other if they want to.

some of the same-sex opponents, some of whom you heard booing there, it was not their day in hawaii, they did not prevail. but for same-sex couples and also for hawaii's caters and florists, they were reoutsides. hawaii will become the 15th state. illinois passed it's marriage equality law last week and the governor there is going to make illinois the 16th state to okay same-sx marriage. to characterize it's direct town right now, i think it would be fair to say that same-sex marriage rights are advancing, and rapidly, and they are not just legally advancing, they are advancing in broad terms. after of this summer, a clear majority of americans favored marriage equality for the whole country. among moderates it was 63%. among independent voters it's 63%. among women it's 53%. that's where the country is at right now on this issue, and

it's getting more so all the tile. since the supreme court's decision on the defense of marriage act this summer, more and more states have moved toward equalizing their marriage laws. and when that happens inside a state, the sky tends not to fall. and therefore the arguments about how terrible same-sex marriage would be for that state, tend to hold even les sway than they might have held. this is a public opinion train that has left the station. but, among the national tier republican politicians, among even national tier republican politicians whose future prospects are supposedly stakd on their cross other appeal and their electability. there's not a single republican among them right now who's not staunchly opposed to letting gay

people get married. even when it came to the marriages of their own children, every single one of them is against it right now. >> if my kids came to me and said they were gay, i would grab them and hug them, and tell them i love them, just like i would do with any of my children when they came to me with news that they thought was important enough to open themselves in that way. but what i would also tell them is that dad believes that marriage is between one man and one woman, and that's my position. >> that's his position, and it's an interesting thing, as it becomes more and more clear that the country has already made its decision on equal rights for gay people, including on marriage. it becomes more and more clear, that there's a dwitd here. like minimum wage there,'s no one among the real contenders for national office who agrees where the country is going on that. when the boy scouts decide -- anti-gay conservatives

decided they were going to form an alternative to the boy scouts, an alternative group that would pledge to keep out the gays. they billed thechls as the boy scouts for real men. the supreme court stuck down the anti- gay marriage ban, lottings of social conservatives said -- that ruling was going to start a second american civil war, it was going to start a revolution. this weekend, republican senator marco rubio is headlining a dinner with those two guys i just described, with the guy who founded the no gays allowed alternative to the boy scouts, a and the guy who wants a new re-loosary war, or a new civil war maybe, in any case, he wants a full blown american war because of the supreme court's decision on gay marriage. senator marco rubio, like chris

christie, these are supposed to be the republican's party's way out -- puts themselves at odds with not only most of the electorate, but with specifically the fastest growing parts of the electorate. but every single one of these guys, marco rubio includes, ranked paul all of them, all of them are in lock step with the mike huckabees and the paul robertsons on the gray rights issue. it's rubio, it's christianie, it's paul rachbd, it's never national -- because they're supposedly a young fresh face who can appeal to the kids. not a single one of them have broken rank on this issue. boy do the kids disagree with them on this statement. most republican conventional wisdom includes the idea now to

having to broaden the party's appeal beyond a base of very, very conservative voters. voters views of same-sex marriage rights are a matter of public record right now. but if national republican hopefuls don't see the polling, don't see which way this is going, there will certainly be competing national candidates who do see, and they will win while these guys lose. place your bets.

the united states supreme court did something today that might be unexpectedly far reachings. it turns out it springs directly from what one of my high school teachers had to do for me in 1990 to make me stop cutting costs. that story which comes up next. [ female announcer ] did you know the average person smiles more than 50 times a day? so brighten your smile a healthy way with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it's the only rinse that makes your teeth two shades whiter and two times stronger. ♪ listerine® whitening... power to your mouth.

last year the international genius cartoonist, jerry trudeau, the guy who wrote do you knows bury, forcing women to have vaginal ultrasounds that they did not want. on behalf of governor rick perry, may i welcome you to your compulsory trance vaginal exam. the woman is in the examination room and says she does not want the vaginal exam. she gets told by the nurse, you're first trimester. all such abortion seekers be examined with a ten-inch shaming wand. the woman says will it hurt? it's not comfortable, but -- the

doctor about to perform the procedure, by the authority vested in me by the gop base, i thee rape. so a lot of papers decided no not run dunesbury this week. a middle aged made state legislator will be with you in a moment. and then in the next strip, the next day, we get to meet the guy who was introduce it in the previous day. i have to make a personal aside here. when i was a senior in high school. i started to cut class a lot. i don't recommend doing that, but i did. one of my teachers took an interest in me and did me a huge favor by getting me hooked on classic dunesburi comic strips.

she would send me the next installment by school internal mail. the next installment would not get to me until my next class that day. and so on and so on to all of my classes, so i would have to go to all of my classes in order to find out what happens next in the comic strip. it totally worked. it made me stop cutting class when i was otherwise a totally apathetic high school senior. and without dunesbury i would have the no done it in the next day's strip, we get to meet him, there he is. i'm one of the sponsors of the texas sonogram bill. would this be your first visit to the center? no, i have been using the contraceptive services here for some time. i see, do your parents know you're -- gary trudeau,

international all-time comic genius and of course dozens of papers across the country, not just in texas, dozens of papers across the country felt they had that shield their readers eyes that week. and frankly that's part of why the internet will live and physical paper also die. but texas not the only state with a forced ultrasound law on the books. it was lars year that bob mcdonald earned his governor ultrasound nickname when he signed into law a version of the mandatory ultrasound law. he tried to distance himself from the big once i everyoned him lots of protests and national attention and of course the nickname. but then there's the also the great state of oklahoma a state that passed the mandatory ultrasound bill back in 2010, in

addition to requiring the ultrasound even if you do not require it, and your doctor does not want you to have it. the oklahoma law session that the doctor had to show you the ultrasound screen and had to describe to you everything that the screen could pick up. most of these laws do not require women to watch, do not require them to listen to the description in detail. some of these laws at least allow women to look away. but not in oklahoma, the oklahoma law, made you watch against your will, made you listen. the oklahoma law also mandated that the ultrasound had to be an internal one, it had to be a trance vaginal probe for almost all abortions. when oklahoma passed their bill, it was quickly challenged in court. the law has never been enforced in lt state. last year the supreme court struck the law down. other state officials appealed that ruling to the united states

supreme court and today the yooulgs supreme court responded and said that oklahoma law is staying dead. they refused to overturn the state supreme court ruling that struck down the forced vaginal ultrasound law in the first place. the court turned away the state's appeal without comment. you know, remember, oklahoma objection is not alone. on behalf of texas governor rick perry, may i welcome you to your compulsory trance vaginal exam. did the u.s. supreme court make this decision on this oklahoma law because oklahoma's law is particularly bad in constitutional terms? because it was more out there than other states? or should this ruling today be taken as an indication that maybe all these states laws like this may be in more constitutional truck before they were when we all woke up today. joining me now the nancy northrup. >> tell me in your own words,

from your perspective as the organization involved in this case what, your perception is of the larger importance of this ruling? obviously it has direct impact in oklahoma, does it speak broader to the issue of these kinds of laws? >> well, i think it does. the oklahoma objection state court had a very strong ruling in this case. that the oklahoma forced son kbram law was unconstitutional. the oklahoma supreme court found it unconstitutional under the federal constitution. so we are incredibly pleased that the oklahoma -- we want to see the same kind of decisions in other courts where these are going through. >> know that a lot of these states that have rulings like this on the books, they are

either enjoined or defactor enjoined by this issue of it being in the court, or there being court rulings stopping them from being implemented. do you expect there to be similar rulings in north carolina, louisiana or other states that have this rule? >> in north carolina, on a preliminary basis, they have enjoined a forced sonogram law like the one in oklahoma. but we will have sublg session in oklahoma as well and can put a stop to these laws that are demeaning to women, do not trust women to make decisions that are their own personal health decisions to make. >> nancy, in terms of the broader strategy here, we have seen in the last few years and we have talked about it before on this show, we have covered it extensively on the show. the way that republican state legislatures and governors have

become more -- mounting new legal restrictionings on access to abortion, whether it's the forced ultrasound bills or whether it's bans on when you are allowed to have an abortion, or hoops that you have to jump through in terms of waiting periods. obviously they think they're going to be able to chip away at abortion rights in a state by state way without getting to the question of -- are they trying to avoid one and they think they can. >> i think they are both trying to see if they can chip away at no basically the tree trunk falls, and at the same time, they're also happy to get up to the supreme court and make a full run at having rowe overturned, if you understand the seriousness behind these laws, but the real impact of them is what we need to be paying attention to. you talked about texas earlier, district court in texas found that their law that makes a trumped up regulation that you

have to have admitting privileges, they found it unconstitutional for good reason because a third of the clinics in texas cannot see patients right now because the fiftd circuit court aevery of appeals lifted the injunction while we defend that win. so that is a real impacts on women. and we have got to be sure if that can happen in the second largest state, what is going to happen to access across the country? >> nancy, if there was a direct challenge to rowe right now that did make it to the u.s. supreme court, do you have confidence that the court would uphold that preference? it's hard to -- just as kennedy was in the majority in the planned parenthood versus casy decision that reaffirmed rowe. i believe that the facts that we're seeing in states like texas if a case like that gets to the supreme court that we're

going to i hope have justice kennedy see that the facts show that these kinds of laws are an underhangeded way of doing what the supreme court has said you can't do. you can't flatly ban women from being able to get abortions and you shouldn't be able to go in a speaky way to do what cloudy you can't do directly. >> nancy northrupp, from the center of reproductive rights, appreciate you being here. even though the elections were a week ago, there's still no final results in one very crucial race but we have got an update and you will want to hear it tonight. happening right now, stay with us. el ible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan,

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sometimes just the decision to vote can make a guy very, very, very, very suddenly popular. veteran rob had hoped to spend his holiday hiking in the woods with hiss dogs. >> some times just the decision to vote can make a guy very, very, very, very suddenly popular.

>> people, democratic party calling, everybody calling, coming to the door. on my way up here today, the cell phone is ringing off the hook. >> you wanted to go hiking. but then you went and voted now. everybody is calling. this is what is like right now in one part of virginia where the race is so close, and the rules about how to count the vote are changing while the counting is happening. individual voters are being plucked out of their normal lives and planned hiking trips to come back to the elections office and do work to try to make their vote count. there is a midnight deadline on this. the work is going on now. a weird, developing story. we have the latest in just a moment. the secret is out. hydration is in. [ female announcer ] only aveeno daily moisturizing lotion has an active naturals oat formula that creates a moisture reserve so skin can replenish itself. aveeno® naturally beautiful results. aveeno® hey, buddy? oh, hey, flo. you want to see something cool? snapshot, from progressive.

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for those nights when it's more than a bad dream, be ready. for the times you need to double-check the temperature on the thermometer, be ready. for high fever, nothing works faster or lasts longer. be ready with children's motrin. >> this is a virginia voter today. look at this. kathy jackson is her name. she lives in fairfax county virginia, this is the caption "kathy jackson of reston is relieved after the fairfax county electoral board gave a nod for her vote." kathy jackson had to vote with a provisional ballot in virginia's

elections this time. that meant it was not a sure thing that her vote would be opened up and counted in this election. kathy jackson showed up to plead her case, to plead with the electoral board to please count her vote. and thumbs up she got the nod from the electoral board. her vote will be counted. ms. jackson was one of dozens of people in fairfax county who had to make the trek back to the elections office over the last few days to argue that their vote should be counted in this very, very close election. each of those people really, really matters. virginia's election isn't over yet. a week after the polls close now. i mean we know that ken cuchinelli will not be the governor. will the democrats sweep the statewide races. we do not know. we have no idea who is going to

be the attorney general of the commonwealth of virginia. in the race between obenshain/herring. herring the democrat lead by 106 votes out of more than 2.2 million votes cast. which is really super incredibly crazy unbelievably close. in an ordinary election year if you had to cast a provisional ballot if they wouldn't let you cast a normal ballot for whatever reason and you had to cast a provisional ballot you. may be annoyed and outraged to learn your vote was never opened. your ballot was never opened. your vote was never counted. they never bothered going through provisional votes. they wouldn't make a difference. that would happen in a typical year. in this race, in this year, oh, boy do they have to count every single one. because just a fraction of the nearly 500 provisional ballots that were cast in fairfax county alone could easily swing this whole election. by long standing practice,

voters in fairfax county, who got forced into using a provisional ballot for whatever reason, they could ask somebody from one of the parties. you could see here for instance, the signoff form. i hereby appoint the fairfax county democratic me to elect me to kid my provisional ballot and advocate for signing my ballot. now, the board would consider your ballot, whether you showed up or not. your presence was not required. but if you wanted to better your chances, if you wanted to make the best possible case, that your ballot should be counted, you could ask a party representative to make the case for you. while you, went about the rest of your life. and lots of people who cast provisional ballots signed up to do just that. that's how it has always been done in that part of the state.

but that changed on friday. the election was tuesday. they changed that plan on friday. this its totally different from the way they have been running elections in fairfax county for years. but by order of the republican dominated state board of elections, after the election itself. in the middle of counting the votes. now fairfax county has been told they have to change the way they counted provisional ballots. representatives advocating can speak up for voters' bal lots if the voters showed up in person all. >> the veteran hoped to spend the holiday hiking in the wood with his dogs. over the weekend his phone started to blow up. >> people, democratic party. everyone calling. come into the door. the cell phone is ringing off the hook. >> this reinforces that the vote really does count. this voter came armed with dock -- documentation, driver's license, conceal carry permit, fax form if accepted one for the

democrats. >> a veteran looking for ward to doing veterans day things today not coming done here. but voting is the best thing about being a veteran. so this was important to me. the best thing about being a veteran. voting is a great thing about being a citizen. for the past few days. voters have been streaming into the fairfax county elections board, waiting for the chance to defend their votes. in this election as of friday you had to be there personally if anybody was going to mount a case if your vote should be counted. that decision was made by the state elections board. at the direction of the office of attorney general. ken cuccinelli, the first attorney general in virginia in 30 years to not step down to run for another office. because he stayed on as the top's state lawyer, though the past ag's resigned.

the election rulings in the race are being made on advice of an office, his office where the boss was one of the guys on the ballot. ken cuccinelli's office is making decision house to count the vote hour, to change the way volts are counted for the first time in years. whose election is too close to call. i have got to tell you. nobody in virginia political reporting is squawking abut this the way i am. i will admit i seem to mow more upset than any bed close to the story. i am not alleging anything here. if i were a virginia voter. i might like to have somebody who is not a candidate making the decisions. i think it matters. i think ken cuccinelli's involvements are the facts. they declared over half the ballots to be valid. based on the evidence for why the votes should count. then they brought the ballots in. they prepped the tabulating machines.

opening sealed envelopes containing ballots. counting could begin right away. an unofficial report from the reporter on the scene who says the democrat in the race widened his margin by more than 50 votes in tonight's voting. we'll see when the official tallies come over. an amazing race. it's not over. first look is up next. good wednesday morning. right now on "first look," the situation in the philippines is getting more desperate by the hour and tens of thousands of survivors while delivering outside aid continues to be a huge challenge. former president bill clinton takes president obama to task over his health care promise. and incredible $142 million spent on this at christies last night. plus paid in gold to lose weight. important new health information affecting a third of american adults. and baby, it's cold outside. where's the relief? good morning, i'm maria schiavocampo. the situation in the philippines